Are You Creative?
April 26, 2013

I just ran across an interesting article on Lifehacker about the creative personality, called The Seven Elements of a Creative Personality. I read everything I can on this topic because it pretty much describes me. Especially this:

You’re creative if:

Your Mind Has an Associative Orientation

This means that you have an active imagination. “You can fluctuate between daydreaming and perceiving reality,” says Martinsen. “You’re playful and have an experimental attitude.” But you are also able to become deeply absorbed in your work. For example, you might be so involved in your work that you forget to eat lunch. Interestingly, the advertising students scored slightly higher with associative orientation than the artists. But both these groups ranked higher than the baseline sample.

This nails me.

Yesterday I had a few minutes to myself and decided to just sit quietly and relax. I set a timer and closed my eyes. The first thing I heard were birds singing outside. The birds reminded me of my daddy, who could whistle like a virtuoso. He sounded just like the birds and if I’d been a bird, he’d have certainly faked me out.

That got me started thinking about duck calls. Remember, I grew up in Arkansas. There are people in my family who are expert duck hunters and can make the duck call sound just like the real thing. The poor ducks get all excited, thinking they are going to see a friend and end up on someone’s dinner table.

So duck calls and bird whistles got me thinking about how easily we’re all deceived. How quickly we hear what we want to hear and chase after it without fully investigating, only to be destroyed in the process.

I think that’s another post for another day; I’m not feeling that deep right now. But it does lend a bit of insight into the workings of the weird creative mind. A mind that goes from birds singing to complex life concepts in five minutes or less.

If you’re not a creative person and have to work and/or live with one, chances are there are times they drive you crazy. Ask my husband. But you probably drive them crazy too.

I’m grateful God didn’t make everyone like me, though the world would surely be fun and colorful. We need analytical minds to keep us from buying a car because it’s pretty and has a sunroof, or to figure out which TV is really the best for the money.

We see the beauty in our differences when we respect and honor them, rather than trying to fit everyone into our mold. You probably have at least one creative person in your life; I have many analytical types in mine. Don’t just tolerate those differences; celebrate and cherish them as we help each other get things done and have fun in the process.

Rest the rest of the article on Lifehacker here.

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